In September of 2012 the Dirección General de Policía (Spanish Police Directorate) began deploying a new version of the DNIe. This new “DNIe 2.0″ is equal in appearance to “DNIe 1.0″. However, it has a major difference from its predecessor. The DNIe 2.0 allows access to the authentication and signature certificates included in the public part of the card chip without the need to enter the PIN.

One of the main usability problems the DNIe has is the repetitive and annoying request to the user to enter the PIN just by merely inserting the card into the reader. Until the DNIe 2.0, the only way to avoid this problem was to use services, as is the case in Tractis, that integrate with the DNIe via APDU commands and ask the user for the PIN only once. From the DNIe 2.0 onwards, any service, whether integrated with the DNIe via APDU commands or not, will ask for the PIN only once, when you want to sign or authenticate yourself.

To take advantage of the possibilities offered by the new DNIe and the fact that more and more people have it, at Tractis we wanted to go one step further. Starting today, Tractis gives DNIe 2.0 holders improved usability authentication and signature processes. By simply pressing the button authentication or signature, Tractis will detect automatically if you have a DNIe 2.0 and, if so, it will show you directly the certificate selection window, select the correct certificate (authentication or signature), show the name of such certificate and inform you if the certificates are expired, revoked or not allowed by the owner of the identity verification or signature gateway. All without you having to enter your PIN. If everything is correct, your certificate is valid, your certificate is allowed, and you want to continue, then and only then Tractis will ask for your PIN.

To enjoy these improvements you do not have to do anything. The new processes are in place for all Tractis users and services running on the Tractis infrastructure.